This electronic edition is taken from the Samuel Weiser edition of 1973. The work is not copyrighted.
The formatting changes of the 1992 ASCII text edition have been removed; this edition is as close to the original formatting as is possible within the context of the Web. Transcriber's notes in the body of the text are surrounded by [square brackets] and are labeled as such.
I hope you will enjoy this remarkable work of Cabalistic Geometry.
Benjamin Rowe
February, 1997
Although the title of this short essay may seem, to some who have not read its contents, to be both presumptuous and unwarrantable, it is hoped that these will reserve their judgment until they have given due attention and consideration to the study of such an important subject.
We are living in strange times. Civilization seems rapidly to be breaking up, while yet some inner urge is at work towards a better and more balanced construction in may departments of life.
One of the results of the Great War has been to turn the minds of many people from some of the narrower conceptions of life into wider channels. A spirit of enquiry has become apparent on the part of those who had previously been content to accept statements in regard to life's deeper issues on mere belief or hearsay. Many new Movements have arisen under the guidance of people who have obtained at least a partial glimpse of man's wider heritage, and there has been a corresponding falling away from what may be termed the orthodox or established order of things in the churches and elsewhere. Many countries have been making experiments of various kinds, most of which, however, being the outcome of "reform movements" of the narrowest sort, are quickly proving themselves to be unsatisfactory and inadequate. At present, amid all these indications, there seems to have been no complete solution in sight, and, so it might appear, very little comprehension, even on the part of those who are honestly doing their best under the circumstances, of the underlying principles involved. Those who should really be in a position to help, are unable to do so effectively for the same reason.
It may seem a far cry from the present world-conditions of a social and political nature to the Holy Qabalah, but help sometimes comes from quite unexpected sources.
The Jews, and the Jewish problem, represent very important aspects of the difficulty and its solution. A great proportion of the wealth of the world is today in the hands of the Jews, yet as a nation they have no place. As the "chosen people" they were an important nation, but the rejection of the Teacher in who they expected to find their Messiah, is usually considered to have been the cause of their becoming wanderers upon the face of the Earth. Yet the word "Jew" is derived from IU, the Ever-Coming Son, the Horus of the earliest Egyptian traditions, whose influence is not confined to the Christian Era but extends to all Ages, and of Whom all truly typical God-Men, such as Jesus, have been, and are, the representatives upon earth.
But the Jews have neglected the study of their own "Chokmah Nestorah," or Secret Wisdom Tradition, as transmitted in the Holy Qabalah, thus losing sight of their True Will as a nation and their essential Purpose in the Great Creative Plan. It has remained for the Gentile to rediscover some of the deeper mysteries of this Ancient Wisdom, and these are found to be the same in essence as those of Catholicism, Freemasonry, Pythagorean Philosophy, Hermeticism, and so forth; in fact there has always been a Universal Tradition which when known has led the Nations to the height of civilization, and when lost has heralded their decline and downfall.
The present world-crisis and breaking up of civilization is due to the necessity of a general "clean-up" preparatory to a wider and grander conception being presented to humanity than has been possible for many thousands of years. All thinking people realize that things are in a critical condition, and all should be prepared to grasp any reasonable opportunity of obtaining a solution which will be of permanent, rather than of temporary value.
Things cannot be put right without effort, and the question arises: "In what direction is effort most necessary?"
The solution lies with the individual; it is useless to talk of reforming others until we have reformed ourselves. It is equally useless to rely upon someone else to do for use what we are quite capable of doing and should do for ourselves. The soul of Man -- which is the plastic mediator between body and spirit -- has become distorted; he must learn to rectify its structure before he can obtain a clear outlook and a proper point of view.
Man's teachers have been largely responsible for distorting his mental vision, and they must cease from restricting his natural actions and impeding his natural growth, which would be normally proportioned if the Holy Spirit within were allowed to expand in the proper manner. Man's natural tendency is towards health of body and soul under the action of Spirit. Most of the present systems have led him to believe otherwise from his earliest childhood, thus handicapping him from the start.
The child is, in one sense, the best example of the perfect man or woman, and if the child were allowed to develop Intelligence unhampered by false notions from outside, it would grow to be the true example of the God-Man or Man-God in the majority of cases. We have ruined our children before they have had a chance to come to maturity; our well-meaning, though ignorant, parents and childhood teachers have instilled into our subconscious minds most of the "complexes" which in after life we can only eradicate by bitter toil and bloody sweat.
Yet I thank God for a good mother, whose simple faith, transmitted to me, has given me the quiet courage and perseverance to unravel some, at least, of those ignorantly transmitted "knots" and kinks. But, for all that, humanity has complexes which need to be unraveled and straightened out before much real work can be done.
First, then, let me make an appeal on behalf of the children, even if in this New Aeon they do not so much need my support since they are showing an independence of spirit which is simply astonishing to their parents and guardians who were born and brought up under the Old Dispensation. I make my appeal to these same parents, not to foolishly try to break the Will of the child, for it is God's Will therein, and the only indication of the right course of action. Once this True Will is distorted, and the lower personal will brought out of alignment with it, the city is, so to speak, divided against itself and cannot stand. It is the interior conflict between the "personal" and the "True" Will in each of us, that is the cause of all suffering and all wrong action. There is but one remedy, discover the True Will and then DO IT, and our course is one with Destiny and the Will of the Universe in our regard.
The age of "mothering" children is past. The women of today failing to do so in regard to their offspring, or having no offspring to "mother" are doing all they can to "mother" the nation, particularly in America. Such "reforms" as Prohibition are largely due to this mistaken zeal for the good of others. What the "Mothers" need most is to learn to mind their own business and to correct their own distorted vision. Repression can never take the place of RIGHT USE on any plane. The Righteous are those who use rightly what they have, for their own good and that of Humanity from which they can never really cut themselves off. Man cannot live, or die, to himself alone. The same is true of Nations.
All things come from One Substance, and are actuated by One Spirit. Rightly used, any aspect of that substance may be taken into the body and soul of Man, and there transmuted into just the proper condition and proportions for the building up of his own particular being.
If, for instance, it were possible to eliminate the effects of wine from all the American people for two or three generations, they would go to the most terrible extremes and act as savages do whose systems have not been used to alcohol, as soon as the habit was revived, as it inevitably would be in the long run. As it is, insofar as their parents have been accustomed to the use of wine, they are comparatively immune while their normal appetites in this respect are not over-stimulated by the attempt at repression. Many of the most normal people drink more under "prohibition" than they ever though of doing before. The best men and women are those of such varied experience on all planes that they are immune from every poison and every disease because they have found the proper proportion and balance of all that is called good and evil makes up the Perfect Man who is like unto his Father in Heaven, in Whom all things have their being.
Man must eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil before he comes to the Tree of Life in the Midst of the Garden. Only when he eats too much of one thing and not enough of another, does his body or soul become distorted. Every "Christ" and every Genius has been the friend of publicans and sinners, as well as of the "selected and exclusive." Idealism and Materialism must unite and go hand in hand if a new Civilization is to be build up. The Soul of Humanity is the connecting link. There is nothing to be ashamed of in our material bodies, but they would not be of much use without the Spirit and Will which give them Life and motion. On the other hand we should not be so cowardly and selfish as to desire to be re-absorbed into Spirit, as if the whole Creative Plan were a waste of time, and had better never have been started. No! Let us give thanks in our souls for both body and spirit, using both rightly and to the full extent of our power. But how shall we learn the right proportions of each?
We must eat of the Fruit of the Tree of Life, and it will be found to nourish us perfectly and cause all the elements of our system to come to their proper proportion and fullness of stature. We must enter upon the heritage of Freedom that has been prepared for us in the Father's Kingdom upon Earth.
We have sacrificed the flower of Humanity, not alone in the Great War but in many, many ways, to our false gods. In the Name of the True and Living God, let us cease from bloody sacrifice, and start to build a "Living Temple, not made with hands, eternal in the Heavens"-upon Earth.
On April the fourteenth, nineteen hundred and twenty-three E.V., having just completed the ms. of my treatise on "The Egyptian Revival" or The Ever-Coming Son, in which my endeavor was to show that the "Restored Order" of the Paths of the Qabalistic Tree of Life was likely to be the correct one, since it indicated the Universal Tradition as symbolized by the Keys of Hermes, I was rewarded by the opening up of an amazing further possibility in regard to the Design of "The Tree of Life" itself.
It was between 8:30 and 9:30 P.M. on the above date, that the "Tree" began to GROW, and proved itself, to my mind, to be the veritable anatomy of Ra-Hoor-Khuit, Ever-coming, between the two Infinites. This fresh revelation left me strangely silent; it seemed almost too wonderful to be true, but it has since-for I am writing this on April 17th-shown even greater possibilities, the most extraordinary of which was only revealed to me this afternoon, after discussing the matter with W.R.
I do not intend to write of the discovery itself for the moment, but merely to prepare a brief essay on the Qabalah by means of further Light I have so recently received. This will serve as an introduction to the more complete explanation of the whole matter which, in order to be comprehensible to my readers, will require a number of diagrams showing the different stages of its development. To begin at the beginning. As stated in "Q.B.L.," the Qabalists postulated the AIN or NO-THING as the Zero from which, in a mysterious manner, the Universe arose. Next, they say, the AIN SUPH, or Limitless Space, became the Nature of the AIN, and this conception was followed by that of the AIN SUPH AUR or Limitless Light of Chaos. It was not until this Limitless Light had concentrated Itself to a Center that the First Positive Idea arose, and this was called Kether and attributed to the Number One.
From this One there arose in succession the other Numerical Emanations or Sephiroth from Two to Ten, thus completing the decimal scale of Numbers. The Number 10 is said to represent the return of the One to Zero, thus completing the Cycle of Manifestation. These ideas may be found more fully described in "Q.B.L." and elsewhere, but I now desire to attempt a slightly different presentation, which will be developed in greater detail later on in this book.
The finite mind of man is unable to grasp the Infinite, except in a certain Mystical and Spiritual manner, but by the Light of the Spirit let us do our best to comprehend this great mystery of the Beginning.
Let us accept the term AIN as representing That of which Nothing is known, nor can be known, except through the positive manifestations which arise form It. When we attempt to imagine the AIN SUPH-Limitless Space-our minds tend to rush on and on, only to fall back before the Profundity of the Great Deep; yet we have to admit the possibility of Infinite extension in space. In my opinion this is due to the fact that we are only able to extend the fine material substance of the mind to a certain limit, after reaching which there is NOTHING for Us unless we succeed in developing fresh Power to drive that limit further back and so to extend the actual substance of our being accordingly.
If Life is the Substance of Light, the Life itself is to be considered as the most subtle substance in our make-up, while it would follow that the more this substance is extended, the greater will be our Illumination, the further our range of vision, and the wider our Sphere of Consciousness.
With these thoughts in mind let us attempt to obtain a more complete Understanding of the Primal Process, which is still "going on" Here and Now.
When the AIN SUPH AUR became concentrated upon a Single Center, it compressed the Light into the Substance of Light, which is Life. Or, in other words, the Concentrated Light became an inconceivably powerful Force or Energy in the center of Kether. This Pure Being, or Living Substance, owing to its reaction from the Invisible Center, tends to expand towards Infinity. This gives us the idea of the Substance of the Universe ever expanding , ever occupying more and more of the Limitless Space of the AIN SUPH, while the Primal Centralizing Urge still continues to contract upon the Infinitely Small, or the AIN.
Kether is then the junction of these Two Infinites, but particularly represents the concentration of the Light to a Point on its way to the Infinitely Small, while Malkuth, the Tenth Sephira and Sphere of the Elements-which the Qabalists say is one with Kether-is the Substance which is ever expanding and, so to speak, gradually FILLING UP THE NOTHINGNESS of the AIN SUPH. So we may consider Kether as the Light and Malkuth as the Substance, while the complete Sphere is composed of LIVING SUBSTANCE. This represents the Macrocosmic Universe, but it is every BECOMING GREATER AND GREATER in extent, and driving back, so to speak, the Nothingness of Chaos. Man, being made in the Image and Likeness of God and of the Universe, has the same infinite possibilities of growth in Consciousness, as the Force of the Spirit extends the substance of his mind to wider and wider fields of thought.
Yet the whole existing Universe is the result of the One Thought of God, and it progresses according to the Order of Pure Reason, as indicated in the Qabalah. All the Sephiroth and Paths have their place according to this Order, within the Sphere of the One Substance, and represent the manifold possibilities of the action of the Life Force upon that Substance and the different manifestations of that Substance under the Influence of the Life Force.
In other words, WITHOUT [i.e. outside] the manifested universe is the Infinite Body of Nuit; at the CENTER of All is the Infinitely Small and unextended Essence of Life, or Hadit. The Contraction of Nuit upon Hadit and the Expansion of Hadit into Nuit are constant forces. The Finite Universe, or Ra-Hoor-Khuit, the Ever-Coming Son, is bounded by an EVER WIDENING CIRCUMFERENCE which is always exactly BETWEEN the Infinitely Great and the Infinitely Small. Kether and Malkuth-Spirit and Matter-together represent this Universal Sphere, while Tiphereth, the Central Sphere of the Tree of Life, must always correspond to Ra-Hoor-Khuit within them; a Sphere HALF-WAY between the Center and the Circumference.
In Nature we may consider the finite representatives of these two Infinites to be the smallest known particle of matter as the Center, the widest expanse of the Star Universe as the circumference, and the Central Sun as their child.
In Man we find all these possibilities, both infinite and finite. The true Center of his being is Hadit whose representative is the tiny Spark of Pure Spiritual Light; the substance of his Mental Body is only limited by the Bounds of the Universe, and these ever recede towards Infinity. His physical body is, however, quite small, while his heart, which regulates the life of that body, is in a mystical sense capable of comprehending the "Light in Extension" of the Sun of his being, which is the soul.
Thus Man is composed of body, soul, and spirit, and the soul is the mediator between the spiritual and material.
The Universe is composed of Malkuth and Kether, with Tiphereth as the Mediator between them, while, in a still greater sense we may consider Nuit and Hadit, the Two Infinites, with the Whole Living manifested Universe of Ra-Hoor-Khuit, as their Ever-Coming Son, the Crowned Child and Lord of the Aeon.
In the Name of the One, by the Grace of God Triune, and by the Favor and Appointing of the Ever-Coming Son, I will now endeavor to expound that which has been revealed unto me.
First, let me state my conviction that this Universe is the Perfect Work of a Perfect Being, and that any apparent imperfections are due to the limitations of our finite consciousness, so that even these contribute to the larger Perfection of the Whole.
Secondly, I believe there is a Supreme and Perfect Order in all things, in spite of any apparent disorder which, again, is but the result of restrictions in man himself.
Thirdly, that the essence of Order consists in the perfect adjustment of parts in subservience to the ends of the Whole, so that that which is most complex is most perfect, but that this very complexity is due to the combination of a few Ultimate Ideas which go to make up the One Thought of the Supreme Being.
I am inclined to believe that the perfection of the existing Universe is Progressive, insofar as the Whole may be said to expand and become more and more complex and greater and greater in extent while still in accord with the One Order which prevails from its most minute atom to its inconceivably vast circumference. I incline to believe that the finite universe is not spherical, though tending ever to become so as its substance materializes. In other words that the Light precedes the Life which is its Substance, and the Life precedes the material which is its substance. Thus the rays of Light may spread out in the form of a Star, while the Ever-becoming Life and material substance tend to expand as a Sphere. The projecting rays, so to speak, drive back the primal chaos more easily than would a smooth sphere which expanded equally all over its surface. That such a conception implies at least a possibility, I shall presently endeavor to show.
There is another important point which should be mentioned. The Spiritual World of Ideas is in Perfect Order; the Material World of Substance is in Perfect Order; the Soul of the World, and of Man, which is the result of these, is capable of comprehending that Order perfectly.
But, again, the spirit of Man is perfect, his body is made in the Image and Likeness of God and of the Universe, but his soul, having within it the power of personal choice, or will, which alone enables him to progress in a free and intelligent manner, is at the same time liable to distortion if the personal will is ill-used or restricted. In that case the Eye of the soul sees things out of proportion and order, and this astigmatism must be corrected. Otherwise, man is under an illusion, self-created, which, however, in no way interferes with the Real Order of the Universe, but merely tends to confine him and to prevent him from enjoying his due heritage in all its fullness.
Thus the Great Work for Man consists in the adjustment of the soul, or Intellectual Sphere, so that it bears a perfect resemblance and correspondence to the Material and Natural Order of the Universe and at the same time exhibits its relation with the Supreme or Archetypal Order. This possibility of distortion in the soul has led him into the direst troubles, but unless that soul were thus plastic it could not expand and take on the complex Design of the Greater Universe. Man's work consists in building up his soul by means of his personal will and creative imagination, under the guidance and direction of the Will of the Universe, into the same Archetypal Pattern which is to be found in the One Thought of God.
But how shall man discover this Design upon the Trestleboard of the Grand Architect? He may at least make an intelligent attempt to do so, as we shall endeavor to show.
Since perfect Order consists in a right relation, adjustment, and proportion of all the parts in subservience to the Idea of the Whole, we must first consider some of the necessary requirements of that Order.
The "Tree of Life" of the Qabalists has been called the "Minutum Mundum" or "Little Universe," and students of the Qabalah will have become aware that this system has great possibilities as a convenient means of classification in regard to every thing in the Universe, or idea in the mind of man. The Universe, for each one of us, consists of what we are able to comprehend of it. Some are content to feel themselves at one with a very limited part; others realize that if once they could obtain the true Design, all would become possible of comprehension in a spiritual manner. But this Design has been lost, or so it seemed.
In Book 4, Part III-still in ms.-we may read: "An excellent man of great intelligence, a learned Qabalist, once amazed FRATER PERDURABO by stating that the Tree of Life was the framework of the Universe. It was as if some one had serious maintained that a cat was a creature constructed by placing the letters C-A-T in that order. It is no wonder that Magick has excited the ridicule of the unintelligent, since even its educated students can be guilty of so gross a violation of the first principles of common sense."
I may state that I have not the slightest idea who this excellent man was, and that I have a good deal of respect for the opinions of Frater Perdurabo, but, at the risk of falling under the same stigma as this "unknown warrior" I shall break a lance with Frater Perdurabo on this point, before this treatise is completed.
Meanwhile, let me refer Students of the Holy Qabalah to the various designs of the Tree of Life which may be in their possession, or readily available.
Let us examine, for instance, those shown in Westcott's "Introduction to the Study of the Kabalah," Mather's translation of the "Kabbalah Unveiled," Pike's "Morals and Dogma," Inman's "Ancient Faiths," "The Equinox," Volume One, Number 2, page 243, Waite's "Doctrine and Literature of the Kabalah," Ginsburg's treatise on the subject, the Frontispiece to Book 777, the oldest extant design in the British Museum, etc., and we shall notice one very striking thing: The all vary greatly in their proportions. Some, it will be seen, are long and thin, others short and squatty. 777 alone gives a well proportioned Tree.
It would seem that this important aspect of proportion has received little or no attention in the past. But let me once again refer you to the ancient "Sepher Yetzirah" (as I did in regard to the arrangement of the Paths in "Q.B.L."); in it we are told to "Fix the Design in its Purity," to "Replace the Formative Power upon His Throne," or to "Restore the Device or Workmanship to its Place."
Was the author of that old treatise using mere idle words, or did he mean what he said? It is possible he did not know how to do this himself, since the mss. of the "Sepher Yetzirah" contains no diagrams of the "Tree of Life"; but, in any event, we may at least attempt to follow his lead and try, if possible, to discover more Light from a study of the true proportions of the Tree.
The formation of the "Tree of Life" is entirely geometrical, and as might be expected, we find the simplest elements of geometry as its basis: The Point, the Line, the Circle, the Triangle, and Right-angled figures.
The proper method of finding the correct centers of the Ten Sephiroth, and thus the points connected by the Paths, is as follows: Upon a vertical straight line of convenient length, describe with unchanged compasses four circles, the center of each being on the line, the point where the upper arc of the lowest circle cuts the line forming the center of the circle above, and so on. Thus:
The center of the top circle gives the central Point of Kether, the intersections of the first and second circles form the centers of Chokmah and Binah, [the intersections of the second and third circles form the centers of Chesed and Geburah,] the center of the third circle is Tiphereth, the intersections of the third and fourth circles indicate Netzach and Hod, the center of the fourth circle is Yesod, and the lower point of its intersection with the vertical line is Malkuth.
This method produces a perfectly proportioned Figure of the Tree of Life, and the connecting Paths can all be made by joining the various points, thus:
In Freemasonry, Geometry is referred to as the "first and noblest of the Sciences" and as "the head of all learning." One of the simplest figures is produced by the intersection of two circles, thus forming what is known as the Vesica Piscis.
The curious and marvelous properties of the Vesica Piscis and of the Rectangle formed on its length and breadth, have been subjects of profound speculation, and perhaps nowhere have they been better described than in the "Magister-Mathesios" by our learned Brother Sydney T. Klein. I am sure he will have no objection if I quote a few passages from his work, which has been one of the means of opening up before me such marvelous vistas.
After discussing the properties of the Masonic Square, obtained from the right angled triangle by means of mundane measures of 3, 4, and 5 units to each side, respectively, he points out that a wave of wonderful enthusiasm must have swept across the civilized world when they first discovered that the Geometrical way of creating a right angle as given in Euclid I, 11, was by means of an equilateral triangle, by joining the vertex with the center of the base. "This Equilateral Triangle" he writes, "was the earliest symbol, in connection with the Vesica Piscis, we know of the Divine Logos and, as the Bible declared that the Universe was created by the Logos (the Word) so the form of the Lodge which represents the Universe was naturally created by means of the Equilateral Triangle. A great mystery this must have appeared to those who, like the Hellenic philosophers, postulated that everything on earth has its counterpart in heaven, and who, in their religious mysticism, were always looking for signs of the transcendental in their temporal surroundings.
"But in what awe and reverence must they have held Geometry when they further found that the Equilateral Triangle was itself generated, as in the first problem of Euclid, upon which the whole Science of Geometry was therefore based, by the intersection of two circles.
"This figure was not only looked upon as a symbol of the Three Divine personae, but that part of the figure which is bounded by the arcs of the two circles and which takes to itself one-third of each of the two generating circles (making its perifera exactly equal with that remaining to each of the two circles, all three therefore being co-equal), and in which the triangle is formed, was naturally held from earliest times as the most sacred Christian emblem, namely that of regeneration or new birth. To how the extraordinary reverence and high value attached to this symbol, it is only necessary to remember that from the fourth century onwards all Seals of Colleges, Abbeys and other religious communities have been made invariably of this form and they continue to be made so to this day. It was also in allusion to this most ancient emblem that Tertullian and the other early Fathers speak of Christians as "Pisciculi." It was called the "Vesica Piscis" (Fish's bladder) and named such no doubt for the same reason as led the learned Rabbi Maimonides in the twelfth century, when dealing with a similar religious subject, to command his hearers: 'When you have discovered the meaning thereof, do not divulge it, because the people cannot philosophize or understand that to the infinite there is no such thing as sex.'
"The Vesica Piscis is intimately connected with the discovery by Augustus Caesar, as narrated by Baronius, of a prophecy in one of the Sybilline books foretelling 'a great event coming to pass in the birth of One who should prove to be the true "King of Kings," and that Augustus therefore dedicated an altar in his palace to the "unknown God." ' "
Brother Klein then goes on to show how the Vesica Piscis was the true foundation of Gothic Architecture, and that its influence accounts for the sudden change from the old Norman style, which was based on the properties of the square rather than the triangle.
He the discloses some of the great wonders of the Vesica Piscis and points out: "The rectangle formed by the length and breadth of this mysterious figure in its simplest form has several extraordinary qualities; it may be cut into three equal parts, by straight lines parallel to its shorter sides:
and these parts will all be precisely and geometrically similar to each other and to the whole figure, strangely applicable to the Symbolism attached at that time to the Trinity in Unity, and this sub-division may be proceeded with indefinitely without making any change in the form; however often the operation is performed the parts remain identical with the original figure, having all its extraordinary properties, and no other rectangle can have this curious property. It may also be cut into four equal parts by straight lines parallel to the two sides, and again each of these parts will be exactly similar to each other and to the whole, and the process may be continued indefinitely, the equilateral triangle appearing everywhere:
Once more, if two of the tri-sub-divisions be taken, the form of these together is exactly similar geometrically to half the original figure, and the equilateral triangle again appears everywhere in both; as in figure V.
In Figure VII I have carried the tri-sub-division to the sixth degree, and to help the eye I have marked with darker lines one of the tri-sub-divisions of each degree; it is only owing to the above unique similarity that the equilateral triangle is again formed on every part of the base line. Again the diagonal is exactly double the length of its shorter side, which characteristic is also unique and greatly increases its use for plotting out designs, and this property, of course, holds good for all the rectangles formed by both species of sub-division, but perhaps its most mysterious property (though not of any practical use) to those who studied geometry, and to whom the figure was a Symbol of the Divine Trinity in Unity, was the fact that it actually put into their hands the means of trisecting the right angle. Now the three great problems of antiquity which engaged the attention of geometricians throughout the Middle Ages were 'the Duplication of a Cube', 'the squaring of the circle,' and lastly, 'the trisection of an angle,' even Euclid being unable to show how to do it, and yet it will be seen that the diagonal A-B of Figure IV and the diagonal A-E of the subsidiary figure, which is also the plumbline, actually trisect the angle D-A-C. It is true that it only shows how to trisect one kind of angle, but it was that particular angle which represented the Craft and was created by the equilateral triangle. All these unique properties place this figure far above that of a square for practical work, because even when the diagonal of a square is given it is impossible to find the exact length of any of its sides, or vice versa."
I have quoted Brother Sydney Klein thus fully in order to give him due credit for his detailed working on this most important matter, and also to supply the reader with a clear idea of the unique features of these symbols, as well as of their deep religious significance and the actual effect that their practical application produced on all the religious Architecture of the Gothic period. On this basis many of the most important Cathedrals and Churches were erected, and their Beauty is not to be denied. When we compare some of these beautiful Gothic structures with the Pyramid, for instance, we cannot but notice the difference; but after all the Pyramid is a truly Symbolic structure in every detail, while the Gothic Cathedrals only show part of the truth.
Imagine my overwhelming joy when I discovered that the ancient Qabalistic Tree of Life, with all its wonderful possibilities as a means of mental classification of every idea in the Universe-Natural, Human, and Divine- was in its entirety based upon the same fundamental principle of the Vesica Piscis, and was therefore not a fixed design but capable of indefinite progression towards the Infinitely Small or the Infinitely Great. For it can be so drawn that it appears with all its details and properties, repeating themselves indefinitely in every direction of Space to Infinity.
Imagine what it means to a Qabalist who has arranged all the ideas in his mind, in duly Balanced and Equilibrated formation, to discover a way of perpetuating in thought all these Ideas, and to be able to realize that the "Tree of Life" upon which they are based is a LIVING TREE, with its Roots in the Infinitely Small and its Branches and Fruits extending to the furthest Limits of the Universe.
This is the nature of the discovery, or revelation, which came to me on April 14th, and it will form the subject of our further studies and researches.